Paedophile 'killed in fire by boy he abused'

Brothers attacked house of sex offender, court told

Remains of the house in which Thomas O'Hare and Lisa McClatchey suffered horrific burns

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Four brothers beat a sex offender with hammers before starting a fire so ferocious it “lifted the roof off”, a murder trial has heard.

Thomas O’Hare – who had abused one of the accused, Stephen Smith, when he was eight or nine – lost teeth and suffered a fractured skull during the vicious beating before his home in Co Armagh was set alight with 75 litres of petrol.

The trial of Smith and his brothers Martin, Christopher, Niall at Armagh Crown Court was told a blaze killed O’Hare and girlfriend Lisa McClatchey.

A prosecutor told how fatally injured Ms McClatchey informed paramedics that the men had burst in through the back door, labelled her boyfriend as a child abuser before beating him, “pouring petrol over us and setting us on fire”.

The jury heard claims that on November 6, 2002, the Smiths did not just intend to cause serious harm but they “intended to kill”.

Mr O’Hare, 33, lived until November 10 while his 21-year-old partner hung on for five days after that.

Martin Smith, 40, from Kevlin Glen, near Omagh, Co Tyrone and 37-year-old Niall Smith, from Mourneview Park in Lurgan, Co Armagh, deny the couples’ murders and arson with intent to endanger life.

Christopher Smith, 33, and 31-year-old Stephen Smith, both from Mowhan, also Co Armagh, pleaded not guilty to the same charges.

Yesterday prosecutor QC Toby Hedworth told the jury and judge Mr Justice Weatherup that according to the Crown case the attack “was a wish to punish Thomas O’Hare”.

The lawyer revealed in 2000 the victim had admitted sexually abusing Stephen Smith and two other similarily aged boys in the village of Clady in the late 1980s and early 90s, offences for which he was given probation.

Mr Hedworth said: “There the matter should have rested but some were not prepared to let the matter rest”.

He told the court that despite the actions of Mr O’Hare warranting punishment, that punishment had already been handed out by the courts and “in any event, had nothing to do with Lisa McClatchey”.

On the night of the attack, Mr O’Hare’s neighbour Seamus Loughran heard banging at his door but when his daughter opened it, she immediately slammed it shut “in hysterics”.

The jury heard how she had been confronted by a screaming Ms McClatchey, naked from the waist up with her trousers “almost totally burnt off” recounting how Mr O’Hare was in the house after being beaten.

Mr Hedworth said Lisa told her neighbours the men had called her boyfriend a “paedophile” before spreading petrol all around, beating him with large hammers and setting the place on fire.

After calling 999, Mr Loughran ran to the house to find it “ablaze” with Mr O’Hare lying on his back outside, naked from the waist up, his face “unrecognisable and covered in blood”. The lawyer said the victim told a similar story of being beaten by a gang.

He added that while on the way to hospital, Lisa told paramedics that the men had burst in through the back door. Mr Hedworth outlined how postmortems indicated they had suffered burns to 80% of their bodies.

State Pathologist Prof Jack Crane found half the injuries were “full thickness” burns, injuries which would “invariably prove fatal”.

In addition, four of Mr O’Hare’s teeth had been knocked out, he had sustained a fractured skull, bruising to his brain and numerous lacerations. Mr Hedworth told the court “the defendants were themselves caught up in the fire”.

He claimed the brothers went to Louth County Hospital in Dundalk, adding they had been trying to “escape to the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ireland”. They all had burn injuries but claimed they had been in a car crash.

The jury were told a consultant surgeon believed their injuries “were not consistent with a crash”. Along with items seized from a silver BMW they went to hospital in, their clothes were seized and forensically examined. Mr Hedworth told the court each item was connected with other items of burnt clothing found at the scene of the fire.

A bank card belonging to Stephen Smith was recovered at the rear of the bungalow while a mobile phone which could be attributed to Martin Smith was also found on “escape routes” used by the attackers.

The lawyer added DNA taken from burnt skin adhering to combat trousers taken from Martin Smith at the hospital had come from Ms McClatchey, indicating “physical contact”.

Partially burnt tops, balaclavas, trousers and even boxer shorts, discarded in the field could all be connected to the defendants through DNA profiles. Mr Hedworth said a search of the silver BMW uncovered a receipt for four balaclavas from a store in Dublin dated October 21 2006.

This, he declared, “allows the prosecution to submit the attack had been planned for at least two weeks”.

As well as the forensic findings, Mr Hedworth told the jury they would hear evidence of mobile phone cell site analysis which would “place phones [attributable to the defendants] near 26 Foley Road and the quarry where a Vauxhall Vectra was dumped”.

That car, the jury heard, along with the BMW was allegedly used by the defendants to go to their victim’s house but was found burnt out the next day.

In conclusion, Mr Hedworth told the jury: “The evidence of the fire, the arrival of the defendants at the hospital with burns and connections between what they were wearing and what was discarded, make an overwhelming case that these four defendants were all inside the house when the petrol that they had distributed was ignited.” At trial.